For Cbs, A Delayed Farewell To Gho

MEDIA

The broadcast wasn't live, and the play wasn't exactly lively, and that's the way CBS had to say goodbye to the Canon Greater Hartford Open.

CBS was forced to show Sunday's final round on tape-delay after the PGA decided Saturday to move tee times up in order to complete the tournament by 2 p.m., in advance of predicted thunderstorms.

There are no Nielsen ratings for Mother Nature, so one can only guess how many people took time to look away from CBS's tape-delayed broadcast between 3-6 p.m. to peek out the window at bright, sunny skies over Cromwell.

CBS's bad luck was compounded by the fact that Brent Geiberger won the tournament so easily.Even viewers who didn't know Geiberger won before CBS went on the air didn't need long to figure it out.

The combination will probably translate into poorer-than-usual ratings for the tournament, which last year had its worst Sunday and overall ratings since 1992, when it went head-to-head with the Olympics in Barcelona.

The Hartford-area ratings might actually be higher, since those who attended the final round had the unique opportunity -- traffic permitting -- to watch the replay at home.

What they saw lacked suspense, but not a storyline. CBS played up the Brent and Al Geiberger factor, with Jim Nantz introducing the broadcast to the sound of ``Here Comes the Sun.'' (Sun, Son . . . you get the idea.)

CBS handled the telecast as though it were live,except for a brief on-screen advisory as the broadcast began saying that it had been recorded earlier in the day.

References to Al Geiberger, who won 11 tournaments in his PGA career, abounded throughout the broadcast.

``Brent has got his father's tempo and timing,'' Ken Venturi said as Brent teed off on No. 10.

Late in the broadcast, CBS played a clip of Al Geiberger holing out a difficult shot at the 1976 GHO, then cut back to show Brent making his hole-in-one at No. 11 Saturday.

Another 1976 GHO moment made Sunday's telecast -- a shot of Sammy Davis Jr. in the booth.-- ``Once again, I'm happy to be here in the Greater Hartford area, here for the 25th anniversary of the GHO,'' said Sammy, -- prompting Nantz to make the closest thing to a farewell address for the network. CBS loses the rights to the GHO for the next three years to ABC after televising 24 of the past 26 tournaments.

``CBS Sports has been coming here to the Greater Hartford Open since 1974,'' Nantz said. ``And so many warm memories for those of us who got to work here with Sammy, and all our many, many friends associated with this tournament.''